Bluff, Double Bluff and Easter Eggs
by Sparky75
Summary: A hopefully light-hearted Easter story featuring several members of The Grid. Set sometime in s5


Bluff, Double Bluff and Easter Eggs

A hopefully light-hearted Easter tale that came to me this morning while I was contemplating Easter Eggs. It can be read as a standalone but also (very loosely) follows some of my previous stories Checkmate, Seasons Greetings and Auld Lang Syne. I do hope you enjoy reading it and any reviews will be gratefully received. I hope you have a happy Easter and plenty of chocolate to see the weekend through...

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Ruth took a mouthful of food as she sat across from Harry in the Indian restaurant where they were enjoying their dinner and a night away from the Grid. It was the day before Good Friday and the place was packed with people making the most of the fact that they had four days off in front of them and wouldn't need to get up early for work the next day. "Harry?" she questioned lightly, "Not that I'm not really enjoying this curry," she took a sip of wine as she looked around at people eating, drinking, talking and laughing, "but how come we ended up here and Adam and Ros took our reservation at Portofino's? We've had that table reserved for weeks and you've been wanting to eat their for months."

Harry took a mouthful of his food, chewing slowly before he washed it down with a mouthful of red wine. He smiled broadly at Ruth before answering somewhat cryptically, "it's all because of the Easter Egg you left for me to find, we're really going to have to start being more careful if we hide gifts for each other on the Grid."

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Twelve hours earlier...

Zaf did a minor double take as he turned to exit the stationary cupboard, he'd come in to find a set of whiteboard markers that Jo had insisted he wouldn't be able to miss as they would be right in front of him. Five minutes searching of various shelves and the pens had yet to jump out at him, but in his rather enthusiastic endeavours, he'd dislodged a set of manila folders and as he'd turned to leave, a flash of silver wrapping paper had caught his eye. "Hello," he muttered to himself, "what do we have here?" He reached to the back of the shelf and withdrew the wrapped parcel, it was light and neatly wrapped in white and silver paper and given where it had been placed, obviously wasn't meant to have been found unless someone was specifically looking for it. He was so intent on pouring over the gift, that he didn't notice someone come up behind him until...

"Boo!" Jo laughed as Zaf jumped into the air almost dropping what he was holding. "What are you doing?" She asked lightly, "I thought the cupboard must have developed a Narnia like back door that you'd disappeared through you've been in here that long."

"What? Oh, someone's obviously taken the pens, I've looked everywhere for them."

"These you mean." Jo said with a smile in her voice as she reached round him to grab the pack of four markers sat behind a staple gun.

"They weren't there a minute ago. I checked.."

"Well you obviously need your eyes testing!" Jo laughed, "they're exactly where I said they would be. And while you're there, you can get your hearing checked as well."

Zaf looked at her puzzled, "What?"

"Exactly" Jo beamed at him, "you're obviously going deaf in your old age. Fine spy you are, you didn't have a clue I was behind you until I made you jump!"

"Yes well, I was thinking..."

"Well, I suppose there's a first time for everything," she joked, "don't tell me you've just discovered that buffalo wings aren't made from actual buffalo?" She asked innocently, remembering a conversation they'd had a few months previously when Zaf had been amazed to hear that they were actually chicken and named after a town, rather than the herds of buffalo he had always presumed they took their name from."

"Oh, haha." Zaf looked around at her smiling face and couldn't stop his own face mirroring her expression. "It's not that I didn't know... it's more that it was something I'd never thought about before! They've always just been called chicken wings where I come from."

"So what were you thinking about all this time while the pens were hiding from you?" Jo was in a great mood. It had been a quiet day so far and as long as nothing unexpected cropped up over the next few hours, she had the next 3 days off to do nothing more than eat hot cross buns and Easter eggs while watching James Bond films on the telly.

"What? Oh..." he nodded down to the parcel that was still clutched in his hands. "While I was looking for the pens, I came across this instead." He handed the parcel over to her, and she took it curiously.

"What is it?"

Zaf rolled his eyes at her in good humour, "how should I know, it's still wrapped."

"I meant, who's it for?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "no idea, there's no name on it and as far as I know, there's no birthdays or anything at the moment."

"Ruth's is coming up at the end of the month." Jo mused, while shaking the box lightly, before dismissing the idea, "but that's nearly 4 weeks away, it can't be for that."

"Well there's only one way to find out..." Zaf smiled cheekily.

"How? We can hardly monitor the cupboard twenty-four hours a day until someone comes to collect this." Jo turned it over in her hands looking for another clue, "It's also entirely possible that this has been sat in here for years and has been forgotten about!"

"Nah." Zaf took it back off her, "no dust, this hasn't been here long at all. We do it the old fashioned way. "He lowered his voice to a whisper, "don't tell me you never used to sneak around your house before Christmas and find the presents that your parents used to hide from you?"

"Of course." Jo smiled at the memory, "they were terrible, they were always either under my parents bed or at the back of their wardrobe."

"Exactly." Zaf grinned at her, "so we just need to do what we did when we were kids?"

Jo's face lit up in a smile, "I haven't unwrapped and then wrapped a present up in years! Quick, pass me the scissors." They grinned at each other, this puzzle was lightening up a rather boring day that thus far seemed destined to be filled with paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork, neither of them if asked, would have been able to explain quite why they were so keen to see what was in the wrapped parcel other than it was a distracting diversion from what they were supposed to be doing.

Zaf pulled the door behind them closed, as they grouped around as Jo carefully threaded the underside of one of the blades under the seal and slowly pulled the paper away from the sellotape. She worked quickly and carefully and soon had managed to displace it enough that they were able to pull out whatever was inside it. They both stared at the cardboard container in front of them in slight bemusement...

"A children's Easter Egg?" Jo looked at Zaf questioningly, now she'd seen what was in the parcel she was wondering why she had been so keen to unwrap it.

"It must be Adam's," Zaf responded, "Wes loves Cadbury's chocolate buttons. I always take him round a packet if I go round to there's to watch the football."

Jo looked at him as she pursed her lips slightly as though thinking something through. "But why would Adam hide a present for Wes in here, Wes never comes onto the Grid. Plus I'm sure he'll be buying him a bigger egg than this. This is one that you'd buy for younger children... and why would he wrap it? No one wraps up Easter Eggs."

Zaf laughed lightly as he picked up the flimsy box which was harbouring a small hollow shell and a couple of packets of chocolate buttons. "The mystery deepens," he said while turning over the box... "or maybe not!"

"What do you mean?"

"There's something written on the back here, in the 'To and From' space." He held up the box to the light, angling it slightly so he could make out the words which were printed in block capitals clearly.

_JUST A SMALL ONE AS _

_I DON'T WANT YOU RUINING _

_YOUR DINNER TONIGHT. SEE YOU _

_AT PORTOFINO'S 7.30. R x _

He grinned broadly, "I knew it," he exclaimed loudly and with a broad grin.

"Knew what..." Jo teased, she'd been as keen as Zaf to find out what was happening between their colleague and boss and now it looked like they finally had their proof.

Zaf laughed. "Well that's a tenner Adam owes me anyway..." At Jo's look he elaborated. "I've been running a kind of book on them. I've been convinced for months that they're seeing each other and this is the proof I need."

Jo smiled at his enthusiasm, things were often so tense and fraught on the Grid that the 'are they or aren't they' situation between Harry and Ruth had resulted in a number of different wagers between different people. She was convinced that the only people who didn't have any money on it were herself and Malcolm. "You do realise you can't use this as proof don't you?"

"Why?"

"Because you've unwrapped a gift that wasn't for you and Harry is likely to hit the roof as and when he finds out which he certainly will if you use this as your 'proof'!"

Zaf paled slightly, "what's with the you've... this is a we've, not a you've," he countered quickly.

"Yes, well whatever it is, you still can't use it." She grabbed the box from him and quickly started to place the paper back around it, making sure that it was folded and wrapped in the exact same way.

"So how do we prove it then?" Zaf huffed, realising that she was right but not wanting to give up on the money that was owed to him and more importantly the bragging rights of proving to Adam that he'd been right all along, ever since Christmas dinner when he'd been convinced that Harry and Ruth had been holding hands under the table.

"There." Jo held up the wrapped parcel in front of her and studied it critically moving it from side to side. "You'll never be able to tell, now where exactly did you find this." Following his hand, she put the parcel back behind the folders and arranged them so it couldn't be seen, before turning to look at Zaf, "as for how you're going to prove anything then that's easy."

"How?"

"You can take me out for dinner tonight." Jo grinned at him, "book a table for two at 8.15 at Portofino's and make sure you bring a camera, one of Malcolm's hidden one's will be best." With that as her parting shot she exited the stationary cupboard, "Oh and Zaf," she called back, "don't forget to bring the whiteboard markers with you."

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Ruth popped another piece of naan bread into her mouth with a smile, "so go on then," she urged Harry, "after you'd followed my clues to the stationary cupboard how did you realise the parcel had been compromised?"

Harry grinned broadly as he sat back in his seat, "Ruth, I've been a spy for a long time and can see when something has been tampered with," he chucked and took another mouthful of wine, "and I've also been a parent!" At her quizzical look he continued, "I may not have been winning any Father of the year awards when Catherine and Graham were growing up, but I was around enough to help wrap the occasional birthday and Christmas present... and I was also around enough to know that however hard we attempted to hide them, they'd always be found and despite their best efforts of concealing it, it was also obvious as to which had been opened and resealed."

Ruth laughed softly, "so what did you do?"

"With Catherine and Graham nothing... though we did wrap up a number of copies of Encyclopedia Britannica to try and fool them." Harry smiled wistfully at the memory.

"And with the egg? How did you find out who'd unwrapped it?"

Harry tapped his finger against his nose slowly, before grinning at the look on her face, "sorry, I couldn't resist." He took a last forkful of food and swallowed before continuing. "I looked at the evidence and then acted upon it." he said rather dramatically, well Ruth thought it was dramatic anyway!

"Harry..." she threatened softly, but she couldn't stop the smile spreading across her face.

He grinned, he was enjoying himself, it wasn't often that he and Ruth had the chance to eat out together, but he'd made sure that the whole team had finished at a reasonable hour that day and he was looking forward to a few days off unless any horrors struck. "Your message on the back, said to meet at Portofino's at 7.30 right?"

Ruth nodded slowly, she still hadn't quite understood how he'd figured it all out.

"Well, I thought it very possible that whoever it was, would work out that you meant tonight rather than any other night over Easter, given that most of the core staff are off until at least Easter Monday... and if whoever it was, was nosey enough to go to the trouble of unwrapping and then rewrapping the box, then it's also quite likely that they'd want to show up this evening to 'surprise' us."

"So..." Ruth questioned.

"So..." Harry grinned, "I asked Malcolm to trace any calls made from the Grid to Portofino's number that morning, and lo and behold... at 11.39 am this morning a call was made from Zaf's office phone to that number. Malcolm also volunteered the information that Zaf had also asked him if he could borrowing the pen that has a hidden camera hidden inside it for the weekend."

Ruth burst out laughing, "so what did you do next?"

"I got on the phone and booked a table here instead for tonight, I then called Portofino's and asked for my reservation tonight to be switched to the name Myers and for them to make another reservation in the name of Pearce for Saturday night!" He smiled broadly at her, "I hope you're also free then?"

She nodded, "of course... But how did you convince Adam and Ros to go?"

Harry shrugged, "I knew Wes was away at his Grandparents and Adam isn't gong down there until tomorrow morning so I asked him for a favour." He smiled softly at her, "you know he knows about us? I haven't said anything to him but he knows..."

"I know." Ruth smiled, "it's been a while for us now as a couple Harry, I don't mind people knowing now despite it being none of their business. I'm not going to take fright and run again"

He took hold of her hand across the table and squeezed it gently, "I'm glad," he said softly, "but it's also quite nice to have something just between the two of us... Plus," he added mischievously, "It also allows us to get one over Mr Younis and Miss Portman," he glanced at his watch, "who'll currently be enjoying dining in a very expensive restaurant watching Adam and Ros moon over each other!"

Ruth laughed delightedly, "You managed to convince Adam and Ros to 'moon' over each other? How on earth did you do that?"

"Well in asking Adam and Ros if they could do a bit of 'undercover' work this evening, I did offer to pay their bill and Adam asked if there was anything more he could do to help me out? It turns out that he had overheard Zaf and Jo in the stationary cupboard and given your name wasn't on the box, he thought it might be quite entertaining if Zaf and Jo suddenly believed the R stood for Ros rather than Ruth."

She smiled broadly and finished off the rest of her wine, "and Ros agreed to all this?" she asked a little disbelievingly.

"I'm not sure how much Adam told her," Harry admitted, "I think she rather has a soft spot for him, I think he just said they needed to go undercover as a couple and was she game for a night on the tiles, a favour for some friends I think he called it?"

"I'm sure she'll have realised by now what's going on, if she hadn't already. Ros is probably the sharpest person in the team, she doesn't miss much" Ruth realised suddenly that what she had said earlier to Harry really was true, she really didn't mind the rest of the team knowing about them.

Harry smiled across at her as he indicated towards the waiter for the bill. "So what do you want to do now? Go for a drink somewhere or..."

"I think I'd rather just go home Harry, have a early night." She smiled across at him warmly, "your place or mine?"

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"We have a booking for two under the name Younis." Zaf smiled at the Maitre D as Jo looked around the restaurant, hoping for a glimpse of Harry and Ruth. The plan was to try and get a couple of photo's without them realising and then pretending to be surprised to see them, should either Harry or Ruth spot them.

They were led quickly to their table and ordered drinks while perusing the menu. "Can you see them?" Zaf asked softly.

"Not yet."

Zaf blanched slightly as he read the menu and saw the prices, still he reasoned to himself, it would be worth it to gain bragging rights over Adam for the next couple of months. They ordered quickly, Jo determined to make the most of it and have the full three courses and chatted idly about nothing in particular while waiting for their food to arrive while casting the odd surreptitious glance around the upscale restaurant.

"Zaf, Jo." They both turned to the sound of the voice, somehow Adam had managed to get to their table without being spotted by either of them. "What are you doing here?"

"Adam?" Zaf spluttered, "what are you doing here?"

Adam pointed to a table partially hidden behind a glass wall, "I'm here with Ros, she booked a table for us, we've been here about an hour. The food is wonderful... pricey but worth it."

Jo paled slightly, "you and Ros?"

"Yes, bought Wes an Easter Egg and shouted me dinner, it's very nice of her really, we helped her with some stuff last weekend?" Adam looked up as Ros signalling to him caught his attention. "Looks like our desserts have just arrived and here come your starters." He winked at them both, "I'll leave you two to it, wouldn't want to get in your way and cramp your style."

"It's not like that..." Jo blurted out.

"No, of course it's not." Adam grinned across affably at them both, "well enjoy your meal and don't do anything I wouldn't do." He turned to go, before turning back to them, "Oh and don't worry, my lips are sealed, I won't tell anyone. You two obviously want to keep this quiet and I respect that!" With that he sauntered off to his table with a broad grin unseen by both Zaf and Jo who were sat staring at each other, expensive portions of food sat in front of them wondering what the hell had just happened...

"Ros," Jo said weakly.

"Ros," Zaf echoed, "I didn't expect that..."

THE END


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